Working Experience And Staff Attitude As A Determinant Of Utilization Of Ict Among Library Staff In Universities In Cross River And Akwa Ibom States, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of Staff working experience and Attitude as a determinant of the utilization of ICT among library staff in university libraries in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States, Nigeria. To carry out this study, two objectives and hypotheses (years of working experience and Attitude of staff) were formulated to guide the research. The Literature was reviewed according to the variables formulated for the study. E-post facto research design was utilized for the study. A sample of 461 respondents was drawn from six university libraries using the purposive (census) sampling technique. A structured questionnaire titled, Influence of Staff attitude and working experience on Utilization of Information and Communication Technology for Library services (ISAWEUICTLS)’ was used as the main instrument for data collection. The reliability coefficient ranged from 0.75 to .88 and was established through Cronbach’s Alpha method. The hypotheses were tested at .05 alpha levels. The data analysis techniques used were One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and independent t-test. The results of data analyses revealed that years of working experience (F=13.269) and staff attitude (t-2.257) significantly influenced utilization of ICT by library staff in the university libraries. Based on these findings, it was recommended that library management/ parent institutions should embark on aggressive training and retraining of staff especially those staff that were employed before the emergence of ICT with special reference to utilization of ICT for provision of services in the libraries.  The study equally recommended that Library staff should be trained on the job, through attendance in seminars, conferences and workshop so as to be able to handle professional related duties like internet skills, mastery of library software and other technical skills.